My Life with the Chimpanzees by Jane Goodall –The new audio book version
A review by Dr. Maggie Rizzi
There is so much to recommend about the new audio version of Jane Goodall’s book, My Life With the Chimpanzees, in so many different dimensions. It is a cogent explanation, essentially irrefutable, as to why we must address the perils of climate change. It is a roadmap for children and adults alike to the art of living the life of their dreams. It is a superlative inspiration for girls. It is a quiet, deliberate clarion call for all of us to do, from our particular vantage point, what we can to make the world a better place. In both the expressed philosophy, and the soundscape that lovingly enfolds the story, it is an example of how the old and new combine constantly to move us on a path of evolution.
In droves, people of all ages have embraced the audiobook format. In our multitasking world, they enable us to ‘read’ while doing almost anything else. Digital technology has enabled this revolution, but there are ancient components as well. Long before other forms of art and culture, people were telling each other stories. We read to young children. And there is a part inside people of any age that likes being read to. In a bold stroke, the creators of this rendition of the book, Dr. Goodall, Ruth Mendelson, and Steve Thomas, have also revived the wonders of radio theatre; the magic that enthralled people from the invention of the wireless to the introduction of television. Although TV eclipsed the audio theatre experience entirely for a few decades, the capacity we have to be enthralled through our hearing experience never really went away. The beauty of that medium is revived wonderfully in this audio book. I suspect this enhancement of the audiobook format, including a variety of carefully chosen authentic sound effects and music, will become much more widespread. Many people will probably be thinking, ‘why hasn’t there been more of this before now?’
Jane Goodall’s description of her early years, and the path she took to the life she was determined to lead, is a complete inspiration. In some ways simple, and as such deeply profound, the combination of quiet determination, embracing all opportunities, making opportunities, never giving up, constant curiosity and patience exemplified by Dr. Goodall throughout her life, is a path that is open to everyone. And though the book is aimed primarily to children, the world’s hope, it is never too late for people of any age to adopt this way of thinking and change their life and improve the world. This is great mentoring for anyone restless and seeking a career change. While applicable to everyone, the role modeling for girls is particularly rich.
But that is not the only role modeling here. In a gentle and very clear way Dr. Goodall shows how with one small step at a time, one’s accumulated work can indeed change the world. From the knowledge she has brought the scientific community and the public about chimpanzees especially, but other creatures as well, to the protection of small parts of the earth for biodiversity, to the programs initiated by Roots and Shoots in multiple countries, to the goodwill sown in communities worldwide, this is a record of enormous change. Imagine if each of us did just one twentieth as much, how much better our planet would be?
Having said all that, the book remains a great adventure story of exploration, danger and discovery that can be enjoyed simply as that alone. Lions and leopards, buffalos, crocodiles, and rhinos abound, in addition to the complex communities of chimps.
All great pieces of art require two things: a terrific idea and flawless execution. The rich soundscape that enwraps Dr. Goodall’s powerful words and mellifluous voice is the result of both imaginative and highly proficient sound craft on the part of both Ms. Mendelson and Mr. Thomas. Technology has come a long way since sound effects people tapped shoes on a table to recreate footsteps, opened and closed the studio doors for entrances and so on. But that doesn’t mean it is any easier now. The collection, matching, and editing of sounds is so good that we just completely take it for granted. Our only job is to sit back, relax and take in the great story, sensuous experience, and inspiration on offer in this amazing work.
The Water Tree Way by Ruth Mendelson
A review by Dr. Maggie Rizzi
The Water Tree Way by Ruth Mendelson is a delightful adventure story, primarily written for children, but like so many of the best children’s books, there is a great deal here for adults as well. It is a bold and deep story full of wonder and action on the surface, and some of the most profound lessons of the ages beautifully nestled beneath.
The hero of the tale is a brave, energetic, curious ten year old girl named Jai (pronounced Jay). Like some of the most beloved children’s stories that have come before, The Chronicles of Narnia, and Harry Potter come to mind, it straddles both what we consider the ‘real’ world and some fantastical elements that take the reader into the worlds of inner life and greater truths. Like the mythic Hero’s Journey, articulated by Joseph Campbell, our protagonist accepts the call to leave her everyday life and embark on a great adventure, from which she returns with a gift for her community. Ms. Mendelson has sure handedly rendered this both entirely accessible and lots of fun for young readers.
After meeting Jai in her ordinary world, we are soon taken to the magical Water Tree Grove, where Jai is invited to pick a leaf which will guide her on her adventure. It turns out to be no ordinary leaf, as among other things, it transforms itself into a variety of different birds along the way to help her at various stages of the journey.
As Frodo does on his epic journey, and Dorothy does in Oz, Jai meets a number of characters along the way, each captivating, and each contributing a bit of knowledge or wisdom, both to her, and to us, the readers.
The adventure itself is exciting, fun, hair raising at times, a real page turner, as they say. It is also original, imaginative, visually rich, and full of wonder and unexpected surprises.
This in and of itself makes any book worth reading, entertaining and fun. Having said that, there is something else going on here as well, something more rare, and very important. What separates a nice book from one that is profound occurs on the level of meaning.
What Ms. Mendelson has managed to achieve here is an accessible tapping of what Deepak Chopra calls ‘the world’s great wisdom traditions.’ The solace for those who have experienced loss, the lessons of courage in the face of inevitable fear, the portrait of a deep and meaningful friendship between a girl and a boy are important. But beyond these are some topics that many writers avoid because the wisdom to tackle them is rare, even among adults. The clear assertion that there are consequences to our actions, some of which can cause powerful long term damage, is beautifully coupled with reliable and reassuring ways to repair and redeem them.
Perhaps the most important life lesson, and one most sorely needed in our time, is the unambiguous rejection of revenge, and the inevitable cycle of exponential destruction that it causes, up to including some of the world’s most protracted wars. There is no sugar coating here, but there is an elegant path to the only viable choices for the peace and safety of the world. And yes, all done in a way that is enjoyable, understandable and nurturing. No mean feat in any genre.
During the 1960’s and early 70’s, the Manhattanville Music Curriculum Project developed a series of materials to reform music education based on the premise that high quality, if challenging, material is a far better way to teach children, respecting their intelligence and ability to engage, than easier, lower quality stuff written ‘for their level.’ It worked like a charm. As an educator I have found that this premise holds true in all other subject areas as well. So with that as a guiding principle when choosing books to add to a reading or ELA curriculum, here is an example of a book that offers children highly sophisticated lessons that they can truly take through life, deeply respecting their ability to understand. Additionally, in a time when we are seeking ways to teach values and grounding truths to children, this book provides a multidimensional approach that is entirely without any religious implications that would be problematic. At the same time it is a fun, exciting adventure that can be enjoyed on that level alone. Now that’s magic for you.
Beating The Achievement Gap ONE VACATION AT A TIME
Unless they teach in a homogenous, high-income school setting, most educators struggle with the achievement gap. When distilled to its essence, the student learning gap can be attributed to the lack of academic readiness.
To make up the deficit, students must have more time – more time for reading, more time for the cultural and artistic experiences that upper-middle-class students have regularly, more exposure to meaningful material and more time working with teachers who can help them understand what they don’t know.
In Stoughton, a diverse, blue-collar school district of 3,700 students south of Boston, Mass., we have found a way to do this, one vacation at a time, and using before-school and after-school hours for additional academic support and enrichment.
Click here to read the rest of the article. Reprinted with permission from the May 2018 issue of School Administrator magazine, published by AASA, The School Superintendents Association.
THE IMMENSE IMPORTANCE OF HIRING
What is the essence of an organization? In nearly all cases it is the people. It is for this reason that the first thing, the one thing that will make all else in the institution better, that the leaders of an organization must consider paramount, is hiring. Probably few would disagree with this statement, but what does it really mean at a deep and detailed level?
First and foremost, it means hire for character, teach skills. It never works the other way around. Second, it means that the leaders of an organization must know intimately who they are, what the institution stands for, and what characteristics in staff members will best embody that. Third, it means remove all impediments, at whatever level they reside, to getting exactly those traits in your employees.
In public educational systems, districts and schools, the laws governing collective bargaining deliver us a construct in which teachers who achieve professional status are protected by a complex set of procedures and processes that can sometimes make it very difficult to remove a teacher from the system, except for egregiously bad behavior. This is true in many business environments as well.
This structure, in which we are powerfully united with individuals, often for decades after they have passed the probationary period, makes it utterly essential that we hire well, for characteristics that will be supportive and nurturing of the organizational mission for the long term. This is not to say that the quality of hiring isn’t equally vital in all organizations, even in areas of the private sector, where it is easier to undo a hiring decision that isn’t meeting needs as intended. The time and money invested in the recruiting, orientation and training of an employee make it important that those decisions are as strong as possible to avoid wasting resources and time spent on tasks by people who aren’t doing them well. A less than superlative hire can do much damage to the image, and impact the high functioning, of an institution with implications for the long term even after that person is replaced.
A key preliminary step is to have a vision of what the organizational mission is. Those charged with hiring have to know this with absolute clarity. In our case, our mission is to provide children, from pre-K to senior year, with the finest possible education. This education includes a variety of subjects from English Language Arts, math and sciences of many types, engineering, and technological literacy, to music and art and cultural competence. It also includes the ability to communicate, orally and in writing at a high level, poise, confidence, social skill and emotional and physical health. We have examined this mission and translated the elements into a set of characteristics that we want to be intrinsic to the people delivering it. We must know what these characteristics are, and we must understand how to elicit from our candidates whether or not they embody them. It is in these last two steps that thinking must be applied, because rarely are they known by instinct or happenstance.
Our leadership team has from time to time sat around a table for the sole purpose of determining these things. The people charged with our mission must be intelligent, confident, and moral. They must be particularly conversant with their subject, and they must love it. They must like students, truly naturally like them. They must be able to respect their students and their students’ intelligence. They must exhibit a can-do attitude, and approach every issue, in the school, and in their class room with the question “How do we get it done?” Never, ever, “can we do this?” They must be loyal and believe that teaching is a calling for them, something they would be doing whether they were getting paid for it or not. Our teachers should model character and behavior that students will benefit from emulating. We want the person to be a lesson, as well as the holder of content that they open to their students, conjuring wonder and excitement in the process.
Getting this list of characteristics clarified is vitally important, and requires some reflection. Those are our requirements, but other organizations, including other school systems may have a different list because their mission speaks to somewhat different issues and priorities.
So, once you have a list, how do you sort through the applicants to determine whether they have the characteristics that you require? I have at times included a psychologist in the hiring teams to help the group identify personality or character disorders that can be hard to detect without training. Someone highly presentable to untrained staff may be effectively masking characteristics, even sociopathology, that a mental health professional might be able to pick up.
It is important for the team to understand that hiring is a very relationally based activity. We all bring our own upbringing, experience, and emotions into an interview. Each person on the hiring team must possess the self-knowledge to consider what they are bringing into the room, and how it might affect hiring decisions. A person with a strong rescue fantasy, for instance, might see potential in someone: the way they could be someday; and hire this person out of a desire, perhaps unconscious, to help them actualize this potential. The organization may need someone in the job who is fully able to perform at a high level right now. And some people never reach the potential they have. The more mindful we are of the emotional and experiential history that we bring into the interview room, the more likely we are to be able to make decisions that honor those things, but are not unconsciously bound by them.
The top people in any organization, those who put other hirers in place must have the utmost vigilance and self-awareness in their hiring practices: superintendents who hire principals are an example. I tell my principals more than they care to hear it that their hiring is their legacy. I have observed with interest that the faculties of certain schools have a collective personality shared by the staff. In one case that commonality was one of boundless energy for the work, great dedication, positive attitude, and motivation to solve problems, informed by an immutable belief that this was possible. In another it was a low effort, low hope, low faith mentality
that was palpable, and the students efforts reflected it, as they inevitable must. I knew both of the principals responsible for the majority of hiring in these buildings, and with a clinical eye could see how the personality of the teacher group had a clear nexus to the principals’ psychological makeup. Open eyed examination of one’s emotional baggage, sometimes through the enlistment of professional help in this area, can mediate the tendency to choose the people you gather around you in a maladaptive way. Putting together a team of very diverse personalities can also contribute to this goal. A group of people with multiple complimentary skills and backgrounds can insure that no one person’s set of limitations will be the dominant factor.
It is the case that our current technique for the vast majority of hiring, the interview process, is a very deeply flawed way to hire candidates. This is true for complex high skill jobs, but even in the case of relatively simple positions, a person’s ability to present well in the interview format is no indication of competence in the job. The ability to engage an individual or group in a conversation successfully, while a valuable skill in itself, can be entirely unrelated to the tasks of the position. Even if it is among the talents sought, it is often woefully insufficient. It is for this reason that we have instituted a model lesson requirement for teachers, and a site visit procedure for administrative jobs.
The model lesson gives the prospective teacher a chance to show what they can actually do in the classroom and it is a clear indication almost immediately of whether the person has content knowledge, poise, comfort and even joy in the setting. It is also possible to determine with little doubt if the prospective teacher has classroom management technique, an essential quality in a successful teacher, and one that an interview can never elicit.
There are different philosophies about site visits. Some districts send the candidate to multiple interviews with stakeholders in the hiring district, and see if the stakeholders respond positively to the person. While useful, this provides the candidates with multiple interviews, and if they are good at one they tend to be good in all of them. By having them demonstrate this several times you see the skill at length, but not the breadth of skills. The site visit at the candidate’s work place, on the other hand, gives the hirers a chance to elicit information about the candidate’s actual job performance. If the hiring team is patient and contains adept investigators, much information can be gleaned from conversations with the person’s current colleagues.
Deep reference checks, meaning questioning employers from several of the candidate’s former positions, not just the last one or two, can provide perhaps the most telling information. This is a step in the process that should be approached with the utmost patience and attention. Even if a candidate dazzles the entire team, the phone reference calls should never be viewed as a formality. Many charismatic individuals have some very limiting traits that become apparent after the lights in the interview room are turned off.
if the prospective teacher has classroom management technique, an essential quality in a successful teacher, and one that an interview can never elicit.
There are different philosophies about site visits. Some districts send the candidate to multiple interviews with stakeholders in the hiring district, and see if the stakeholders respond positively to the person. While useful, this provides the candidates with multiple interviews, and if they are good at one they tend to be good in all of them. By having them demonstrate this several times you see the skill at length, but not the breadth of skills. The site visit at the candidate’s work place, on the other hand, gives the hirers a chance to elicit information about the candidate’s actual job performance. If the hiring team is patient and contains adept investigators, much information can be gleaned from conversations with the person’s current colleagues.
Deep reference checks, meaning questioning employers from several of the candidate’s former positions, not just the last one or two, can provide perhaps the most telling information. This is a step in the process that should be approached with the utmost patience and attention. Even if a candidate dazzles the entire team, the phone reference calls should never be viewed as a formality. Many charismatic individuals have some very limiting traits that become apparent after the lights in the interview room are turned off.
Of course all of the legal requirements that apply to hiring must be scrupulously followed. The paper screening must be consistent for everyone, with all candidates rated by the exact same standards and rubrics. Meticulous paper records must be kept so that all candidates get a completely fair shot. The interview process and questioning must be the same for everyone. All inappropriate and illegal discrimination must be avoided, and this must be provable throughout the process for the protection of the organization and all of the people who approach it seeking a place. But you can do everything right from the legal standpoint and still that process may not yield the level of organization to which you aspire.
A complete and thorough examination and understanding of the organization’s mission, even if it takes a facilitated conversation to explicate this, and a deep self awareness on the part of those charged with hiring are even more essential. The process of creating the list of characteristics in a person that are most likely to result in the behavior that supports your organization’s goals is a complex one and requires time and thought. A hiring process that yields the people with those characteristics is an essential complement, without which your carefully crafted list is simply an ornament.
Know the organization at its core, know what the people who embody it must be like, know yourself enough to know your strengths and limitations in the process, and compensate for those limitations. Look for genuine character, and teach the specific job skills if necessary. Craft a process that will yield the right candidates. Make it well written, complete, and clear for the hiring sources. Your organization will be more likely to be staffed with people who represent its values, and you increase the chances of a legacy that will endure.
One-to-One Computer Initiative
-This article is reprinted with permission from the November 2015 issue of School Administrator magazine, a publication of AASA, The School Superintendents Association.
Jeffrey Benson: One of the best
I want to give some recognition and thanks to an educator, Jeffrey Benson, who is truly one of the best. If you have a chance to familiarize yourself with his work, you will find it a rejuvenating treat. We worked together years ago, and have recently reconnected when he came to work with some or our teaching staff, administrators and School Committee members.
I met Jeffrey more than 20 years ago, when in 1993 he hired me to teach music in the alternative school that he served as Educational Director. From that start I went on to teach photography, English, and Historical Research there. In that model the teachers all got to meet with the Educational Director weekly for supervision. This was a great gift, and a model that played to Jeffrey’s strengths, because in these intensive meetings we were able to get down to the real essence of our practice in a very meaningful way and truly get to grips with the elements that were giving us trouble, both in curriculum and the human interaction that plays such a large role in teaching at any level. I have been very fortunate in my professional life and connections, and the chance to discuss and ponder the art and science of teaching with someone as skilled as he, has to rank among the highlights of my teaching career.
Years past and we both moved on to other things, keeping in touch on a casual basis. In 2014 Jeffrey published the book Hanging In, about the value and also the difficulty of hanging in with difficult students. By this time I had left teaching for administration and was in my 5th year as superintendent in Stoughton. I opened the book and after the first page, just closed my door and read the rest of it. I will admit that the hours my job requires don’t leave nearly the reading time I would like, but this was a must read for me, because it is the sort of book that reminds you instantly of why you went into education in the first place, and what truly great transitional work teaching can be at its best.
Jeffrey has come to Stoughton on a number of occasions in the last 2 years, working with our middle school teams who serve students with a wide variety of needs in inclusion and semi-separate settings. He has done team building work with both our School Committee and with our Leadership team. All teams are unique, and ours features a number of veteran members who have been together for 5 or more years, as well a handful of new comers. Jeffrey’s experience working with young people and adult l learners enabled him to design work for all of us that was astutely tailored to help us get a great start to the year as a united and cohesive team.
His work on teaching and on school leadership and educational change is a great blend of inspiring and practical. You can learn more about him and his work at JeffreyBenson.org.
SAT’s, PSAT’s, Dual Enrollment and Other Matters related to theCollege Admissions Process at Stoughton High School
Stoughton High School administration and guidance staff work very hard to maximize the opportunities for all students to go to college. In the last 5 years, 89% of our graduates have gone to either 2 or 4 year colleges. These are numbers to be proud of, in fact they rival prep school numbers. Other students, not included in these numbers, go into the military, a noble choice, and an excellent way to attend college after the completion of national service, which many of them do, using veterans benefits.
People who earn bachelor’s degrees earn at least $10,000 annually more than high school graduates. Even so, post-secondary education does not have to mean the traditional 4 year liberal arts degree. Indeed, we have entered an era in which the cost of these is not necessarily justified by the pay off for many people. That is why we have initiated a number of ways to get a bachelor’s degree in cheaper, non-traditional ways. There are many programs, including programs in many trades and professions, ranging from intensive 8 month courses to 2 year degrees that can increase a graduate’s earning power and career options. The staff must help the students, and their families answer many questions about cost, and value for money, as well as help the students get into the best college for their aspirations and aptitude. To achieve this we have some unique initiatives in place, including unusual SAT and PSAT offerings, aggressive preparation options, a sophisticated software for college selection, highly competitive curriculum, and the opportunity to earn a significant amount of college credit while still in high school at a nominal cost.
The process of getting into college, and selecting the best college choice for each individual, is complicated and difficult, particularly for students whose parents have not been through the process themselves, or with older siblings. The last census told us that 28% of adults in Stoughton have a college degree, so many of our parents don’t have the experience with the process that parents in affluent communities have. There are many gates to pass through, deadlines to meet, tasks to complete, and complex processes to understand. Because of this dynamic, Stoughton High School has many interventions in place outlined below:
Naviance: Getting your information organized and making the right choices.
Through this program sophomores are able to take interest inventories for career and college planning and have their grades, SAT scores, GPA, and other data points entered into the system so that they can see how they compare statistically with students who have gone before them in the college selection process. A senior this year, for example, can see how their profile compares with students who have been accepted into their colleges of choice. Parents have access to this information as well, so they can participate in the decision making process. Guidance counselors are teaching a course that instructs students in the use of the program, and other skills needed to successfully negotiate the college process.
SAT’s and related preparations:
The SAT’s are a significant and sometimes controversial element of the college acceptance process. Communities have been known to judge themselves by their SAT scores. For generations they have been required to be considered by any college. Now there are colleges that no longer require SAT scores, including the UMass system, although it is still highly advantageous to have them. While the UMass system no longer requires SAT scores for students with a GPA of 3.0 or above, they can improve a student’s chances of acceptance there, and in other colleges and universities.
We know after years of experience that although the SAT is supposed to be an aptitude test, a good prep course can greatly improve scores. Test familiarity is also a huge factor; that’s why PSAT’s are so useful. Because the SAT’s are such an important part of the college admissions process, Stoughton has made the commitment to ensure that all sophomores and juniors take the test. The district pays for the test, and gives it to the students during the school day. We make sure that no student will miss the chance to go to college because they have missed this significant gate. Because they have taken the PSAT, many more students actually take the SAT, and their scores are better because of test familiarity. Many students who did not envision themselves going to college are happily surprised at their scores and change their mind. Juniors are encouraged to take the SAT at SHS, in March, and then again in May or June. Familiar testing site, and multiple sittings increase success. Our top students’ scores rival those of the very best anywhere. Because the majority of our students take the test, not just the top students in the class, the average score in Stoughton can be lower than in a town where only the top ranked students take it. We remain committed to this philosophy, because the chance for more of our students to go to college is more important to us than the perception of others. The college attendance rates show that this approach has been effective.
Because prep courses are known to work to boost scores, and many families do not have the time or resources for them, SHS now offers the prep course during the school day, and allows the students to get high school credit for it. This will help our students compete with those whose aptitude might be the same, but whose preparation is better. Next year, the budget allows for an SAT prep book for every junior at the high school.
Dual Enrollment: earn college credit while in high school
Perhaps Stoughton High School’s most innovative approach to the college admissions process is the Dual Enrollment program with Quincy College. Four year degrees are financially out of reach for many students these days. But if one participates in the Dual Enrollment program while still in high school, it can yield an entire year of college credit at a very nominal cost. This credit is then transferable to any college or university, reducing the cost of a bachelor’s degree by 25%. Anyone in the program can finish their associate’s degree at Quincy for moderate cost, and then go on to a 4 year college and earn a degree for about 50% of the cost. A degree from a prestigious institution of higher learning is of equal value whether or not it was started at that particular institution. The diploma is the same, even if the cost is far less because of strategic planning and budgeting. The cost of college and the attached debt have been the subject of much conversation and many news stories of late. At Stoughton High School we have been addressing these concerns for 6 years through this wonderful relationship with Quincy.
Making Our Students Attractive to the Best Colleges
College admissions staff want to know that the students they accept come from schools with rigorous academic programs that have prepared the students for challenging work at the university level. They want to know that the students they accept will be able to stay in school once they matriculate. Stoughton High School has achieved Level 1 in the Commonwealth of Massachusetts this year, a status only awarded to about 20% of schools. This has been noticed by some admissions officers, who have actually commented on it when interviewing our seniors this year. One student received an early acceptance to one of his first choices right after an admissions interviewer remarked on the school’s Level 1. This designation gives them confidence that our students have had a high quality of preparation.
Stoughton High School offers Advanced Placement Courses (AP) in English Language, English Literature, US History, Calculus AB, Calculus BC, Statistics, Computer Science, French, Spanish, Physics, Biology, and Chemistry. These courses are highly rigorous and taught using the same curriculum and standards as the most competitive schools in the country. The test is a national test, and so students tests are graded along side those from other states and all types of high schools. A qualifying score of 3,4, or 5 can earn a student credit in college before they start. Even those colleges that don’t award credit recognize the AP classes as strong preparation for college work. These classes yield the highest Grade Point Average (GPA) numbers.
Quincy College Courses also provide an enhancement of the GPA to recognize the level of work required. Honors classes contribute to the GPA score as well, and we offer honors courses in the following subjects:
English: English 9, 10, 11, 12
Mathematics: Geometry, Algebra II with Trigonometry, Differential Calculus
Science: Biology, Chemistry, Chemistry II, Engineering, Physics, Physiology
Social Studies: World History, US History I, US History II
World Languages: French II, III, IV, V; Spanish II, III, IV, V; Latin II, Advanced Latin Poetry, Advanced Latin Prose
Fine Arts: Band, Chorus (Honors credit requires independent work plus significant participation outside of school hours)
Our students also compete and do very well in the national language exams in Latin, Spanish and French. Stoughton is very proud to have maintained our course offerings in world languages through the economic downturn, even adding Mandarin Chinese, thereby expanding the offerings beyond the romance languages. Our students will be competing on the world stage for all kinds of jobs and professions. Exposure to multiple world cultures adds to the skills they can draw upon.
Stoughton is a diverse community with many students who do not come from families who have attended college, and therefore never navigated this difficult and complicated process. Nevertheless, our students should have the opportunity to take advantage of the top jobs and college places. We have many programs in place to level the playing field, and assist all of our students in safely traveling the complex paths to successful life after high school in a competitive world economy.
The Role of Effort in Intelligence and Success
When I first became Superintendent of the Stoughton Public Schools, as one does, I brought with me everything I had learned about education up until that point. That collection of knowledge was informed by my own education, what I learned teaching individual students in a studio setting, my college teaching, my time as a high school teacher in an alternative setting teaching multiple subjects to students with a myriad of very different challenges, as well as by my general life experiences.
Among the things I have come to know, and that I wish first to impart to students, is the notion that our beliefs play a huge part in what we become. The wisdom of this idea has its roots in Heider’s Attribution Theory and was later expanded upon by other psychologists such as Harold Kelley and Bernard Weiner. The application we find most useful in our particular setting is Carol Dwecks’s explication in her body of work, brought to a large audience through the book Mindset. She taught us that people can make themselves smarter. That your intellectual capacity can increase if you simply believe that it is something you can develop. If you do that, then you will view all failures as learning opportunities and see all effort as making you better and smarter. In Dweck’s view this “mindset” inoculates a person from the fear that failure reflects badly on them, and should be avoided or hidden; a most liberating belief for students, who often think we are judging them harshly if they fail. And indeed, perhaps we are.
In speeches to the National Honor Society, which I try to repeat now and again to each new group who has not heard it, I have said that effort trumps intelligence or talent every time. Even those lucky enough to have innate aptitude will never use it to its potential without substantial effort. I have actually seen very talented musicians who were not nearly as successful as their less talented but hard working colleagues because they thought that their gift exempted them from having to work hard. A recent scan of the many speeches of Teddy Roosevelt yielded thoughts along the same line though they predate Mindset by several decades. In a speech to an assembled group of distinguished faculty at Cambridge he said “Only a very limited amount of success comes to persons possessing genius. The statesman, the average public servant, the average soldier, who wins what we call great success is not a genius. He is a man who has merely the ordinary qualities that he shares with his fellows, but who has developed those ordinary qualities to a more than ordinary degree.”
I had a delightful surprise early in my tenure in Stoughton, when I co-hosted a TV show with David Guglia, one of our middle school assistant principals, and 4 randomly chosen high school students about the nature of intelligence. I used an exercise that I had learned from Jeffrey Benson while working at Beacon High School. During that exercise the assembled staff members were asked in turn what they thought “intelligence” was. There were quite a few very varied ideas, and eventually in the end, a general consensus that people could make themselves smarter through hard work, and further, that knowing this constituted a main ingredient of intelligence. I expected a similar variety of ideas from my students, and then thought I would lead them gently toward the notion that effort meant more than talent. To my great delight, without any prompting from me, they spoke articulately about the relative merit of hard work over “talent:” a place all of their teachers, from pre-school on, had already led them. Not one of them said that intelligence was something you were born with. With or without having ever studied the concepts expressed in Mindset, parents, and teachers had instilled in these kids the belief that their intelligence was something they could create and improve. They were already waiting for me in a place that it had taken a sophisticated group of teachers hours to reach in Jeffrey’s workshop. It was a wonderful moment for me.
Since then we have used the book as a focal point of a year’s worth of Leadership Team professional development, and some principals have led their faculties in a reading of the book. The first to do that was Faye Polillio of the Hansen Elementary. Perhaps there is some correlation between that exercise and the fact that they have been a Level 1 school two of the last three years. There are other factors, of course, as there always are in as complex an endeavor as education, but it is most reasonable to assume that the thinking that ensued from this work played a part.
Preventing Crises, and Preparing for the Crises That Inevitably Come
As a Leadership team managing the living, breathing extended community that is a moderate sized school system, we live with the reality that if you wait long enough, something bad is going to happen to someone in that community. I am neither a pessimist nor paranoid. Life contains some inevitabilities, such as death, accidents, and illness, and when you have thousands of people in a multitude of ways connected to your organization, these things are going to happen to some of them. It makes sense to prepare for events of this sort, because we can never prevent them. Even in a smaller community, such as an individual school, we must be ready for these things when they happen to the people for whom we are charged with caring.
In addition to the inevitable vagaries of life that will touch the life of a community, the possibility exists, however statistically remote, of something like a violent attack or natural disaster that could befall your system. As unlikely as such a disaster is we are obligated to prepare for it, to some extent, as though it is inevitable. The consequences to the community should such an event occur are so devastating that the odds against it simply cannot be relies upon.
There are some potential incidents that could be within our power to prevent if the right structures are in place. There are ways in which threat identification / prevention and response preparation are two sides of the same coin. There are ways in which they are very different types of work. Response to a traumatic event requires clinical, pastoral, and perhaps ritualistic approaches. Threat identification and prevention require clinical knowledge, especially when looking at indigenous threats, but also expertise and investment of a very different kind. Plans must be made that involve law enforcement and other public safety personnel. Drills must be devised and run. Physical structures may need to be altered, technological tools purchased, and procedures changed or devised. In some organizations, a person or group may be responsible for both sides of the coin. Even if this is not the case, complete communication among all of those with overlapping or conjoined responsibilities is essential. In Stoughton we use a District Crisis Team and Building Crisis Team model. Some members of the team are responsible for the clinical assessment of threats, while others are responsible for technology updates and building security enhancements. Some respond with care when a segment of the community is affected by a traumatic event, others bring outside resources, to help with training, grief care, drills, threat assessments and new best practices related to all of these things.
And finally, there is the additional responsibility we have as educators: to teach children how to manage conflict and their emotions, as well as the traumatic and damaging incidents in their lives that could eventually lead them to be a threat to others or themselves. The more successful we are in this area, the fewer young people will emerge as threats in their communities.
This article is divided into two sections because the skills and thinking about each of these areas are somewhat different; 1) the response to traumatic events in a community, and 2) the multifaceted planning for prevention of potential incidents. There is no getting around the reality that all of the measures discussed in this article have costs attached. If done correctly, and/or if starting from scratch, that cost is considerable. The budget to address these things can be projected over a period of years, as each of the areas can be tackled in increments as funds become available. A three, or even five year plan can be written to phase in strategies, trainings, or enhancements. Starting, even in a small way, or in one area, will get an organization further than doing nothing at all.
Prevention strategies:
During the worst of the recession districts had to make excruciatingly hard decisions about what was going to stay and what had to be relinquished. We made the decision, as far as was possible, to keep our counseling staff, made up of both guidance and adjustment counselors, intact. We lost a middle school counselor through attrition and had to share a couple among our elementary schools. We also maintained our nursing staff at one per school and kept our Nursing Director. The fact that this was the condition of a state nursing grant, which requires we have a Director with no case load, made this choice easier to justify.
There are many reasons why keeping this clinical staff is important of course. Social competence and emotional health are crucial to students’ ability to concentrate and learn. Adjustment counselors help students deal with issues that come up for them during the course of the school day, issues that may make it hard for the students to focus on the curriculum or maintain appropriate behavior. Guidance counselors do this as well, and they teach social skills and coping strategies that help students resolve conflict, and manage their potential anger, and other emotions. For the safety of the community, one of the other important roles of the counselors and nurses is keeping their ears to the ground, listening for issues among the students that may indicate a potential threat. The counselors and the nurses are the staff members most likely to get wind of a mental health problem that could lead to a student becoming dangerous to themselves or others. Because of the relationships and clinical alliances that they build with students, and because they interact with students when the children are upset, and because they are trained to listen for indications that a student may be in emotional trouble, counselors have a chance to identify problems before they become emergent. They can bring these issues to the attention of administrators, parents, and connect students in need with mental health resources outside of the school community. Because financial resources available to school are stretched thin at the best of times, it is fair to say that schools and school systems never have enough counselors or nurses. Because the counseling staff does not positively affect class size, or deliver instruction that shows up in test scores, these positions are often the first that are cut when we hit a cycle where money is particularly tight. All efforts must be made to prioritize the clinical staff among the most important of resources in any school community because they are essential to prevention, and when these hard times come.
Teachers play an extremely important role in threat identification as well. On numerous occasions in high schools and colleges, I have seen a teacher identify troubling content in a student’s writing which has led to a referral to counseling services. At times the material was concerning enough to involve law enforcement and outside mental health services. Teachers have strong, ongoing relationships with students, and see them interact with each other, adults and the work that school presents. They are in a good position to notice both behavior changes and dropping grades before others do. Students will sometimes confide in a favorite teacher when they won’t talk to other adults in their lives.
We have initiated several types of trainings to enhance the skills that administrators, counselors, nurses and teachers need to recognize potential threats, and address them. At the suggestion of members of our counseling team we engaged the services of Suzanne Sibole of Youth Risk Prevention in Wisconsin to do a threat assessment training. This led to the establishment of threat assessment teams as a supplement to our building crisis teams in the schools. Ms. Sibole took us through a series of scenarios involving the identification and evaluation of potential threats from students, and others connected to the community. Her training was immediately valuable in our work, and we would recommend it highly to anyone.
We engaged Dr. Robert Macy of the International Trauma Center for an intensive two day training for our administrative and guidance staff. This was invaluable on so many levels, and all of us would highly recommend such a training if it can be arranged for your organization. He simply has no rival, and took us through the ways to heal a community after traumatic events of all types.
In 2008, David Guglia, one of our middle school assistant principals, convened a Mental Health Task Force, which ran once a week for several sequential weeks. The conversations included reentry meetings after student hospitalizations, referrals to and working with outside resources, as well as services and interventions that could be brought to bear in school. These conversations were meant to insure that no student who was vulnerable and troubled was left without support as they resume their place in the regular life of the school.
We learned in a threat assessment training arranged by Mike Morrissey, the Norfolk County D.A., that signs can emerge early, in a child’s elementary years, and that careful records must be kept and shared with school personnel at subsequent grade levels to insure that a concerning pattern is not missed. The notion that child should “get a clean slate” as he or she moves through the grade levels by removing their discipline record at the end of the year or elementary tenure must be rethought in the context of current knowledge. While no children deserve to be treated in a prejudicial manner by new staff they encounter, knowledge of history is a crucial tool to help staff place warning signs in context.
Good clinical resources can help identify those within the community who might pose a threat to others in the community. The next layer of protection is in the technical and mechanical aspects of the buildings’ infrastructure. The cameras available to monitor the interior and exterior of buildings are improving all the time. Better cameras mean better images and better identification. Interactive buzzer systems can help staff identify and control those wanting access to the schools. Since we want schools to be welcoming places, and there are very legitimate reasons for people to come and go, a balance must be struck here. Good communication equipment allowing staff members to talk to each other from different parts of the building is highly desirable. It can be complicated and expensive to retrofit older buildings with these things, but safety is significantly improved by doing so. The staff responsible for these infrastructure components are the Facilities Manager and Technology Director, people whose responsibilities and expertise do not intersect with the clinical staff in any other area. For this reason channels of communication between them must be developed and nurtured around the related topics of safety.
Our police department has taken a strong and effective leadership role, working closely with us to provide resource officers, in spite of tight budgets, and in helping us with building preparedness and new approaches to responding to an emergency if there is one. They have brought us A.L.I.C.E training, so that people are armed with multiple ways to respond to a crisis in a building, rather than just the traditional lockdown we had before. They are in constant communication with us at all levels, working on constantly improving safety in buildings.
Responding to trauma in the community:
There are things that happen to people, that may never even make the news, but they have great impact on the members of a school community. The death of a teacher or student is a primary example. It is after these things occur that clinical, pastoral and ritual responses must be brought to bear swiftly, competently, and with confidence and compassion. Counselors have to be trained for the day when potentially hundreds, perhaps even thousands of students are suddenly stricken with grief and /or fear in the aftermath of a traumatic event, and turn to them for solace. When this has happened in our community, the Crisis Team has rallied and sent all possible resources to the site most impacted. Counselors from other schools come and “set up shop” in the affected school so that students seeking help do not need to wait. Spaces are set up so that students can gather in groups with adult support to process and grieve together. Stations are created with art and writing supplies available for those who might find that helpful. Food and water are made available. As soon as appropriate, different types of memorials and rituals are planned and coordinated, working with outside clergy and community organizations where there is interface. People often need help from trained clinicians in planning memorials that will be sensitive to everyone’s needs. Administrators step in to relieve teachers who might be impacted, and they are offered counseling and space to grieve and process. School life is kept as normal as possible for those students who might not be as affected by a traumatic event, and should be protected from having to be affected. Not all members of a large community are equally impacted by a trauma. At times outside resources like the State Police trauma team, and the social workers of the Stoughton Youth Commission have been engaged, amazing resources for which we are always grateful.
The amount, type, and longevity of any response are related entirely to the individual incident. After any incident it makes sense for the Crisis Team to meet in the immediate aftermath to process and review the responses, because that is when memories are still fresh. That is the best time to look at what worked, what could be improved, and what limitations the stress on the system might have revealed. Until stressed, the plans and processes put in place are only hypothetical. “Table-top Drills” and even active drills are necessary, but do not present the wide range of factors that a real incident will high light immediately.
The process of preparation is never really complete. The process of response can always be improved and enriched. As is true of most things we do in education, there is no time when you can stand back and admire your work and say, “there, that’s done.” Nevertheless, over time a strong, flexible, and responsive system can be built, to which changes and enhancements can be made over time, and as new information presents itself.